Raids on Turkish media offices condemned

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Raids on Turkish media offices condemned

Turkish authorities have detained at least two-dozen journalists, editors and critics of the Government in a number of raids on Sunday writes Angelique Lu.

Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor Hadi Salihoglu said those detained over the weekend were accused of “forgery, fabricating evidence and forming an alleged crime syndicate to overtake the sovereignty of the state.”

"The use of dawn raids to intimidate journalists while having the police enter the premises of media organizations sends a chilling message to the rest of society that criticism will not be tolerated," WAN-IFRA’s Secretary General Larry Kilman said.

Turkish news organisations Zaman, – a Turkish newspaper with the country’s highest circulation – and national TV network Samanyolu Media Group, were targeted in the raids.

The arrests are to said to be targeting media bodies in Turkey with links to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, a leading critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The arrests appear to be connected with a year-long campaign against Gülen and his alleged supporters, after the Government and the President’s entourage were implicated in a corruption scandal. Authorities claimed that the allegations against the Turkish President were an attempted coup by Erdoğan's critics.

Crowds of supporters assembled at one of the raids on the Zaman daily and chanted: “The free press cannot be silenced”.

Freedom of expression groups as well as a number of journalists have criticised the raids in what they call an intrusion on press freedom on Turkey.

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The World Editors Forum is the organisation within the World Association of Newspapers devoted to newspaper editors worldwide. The Editors Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org), launched in January 2004, is a WEF initiative designed to facilitate the diffusion of information relevant to newspapers and their editors.